Nick Zammit can take into accout the precise second he knew he sought after to change into a member of Battlesnake.
“I were given a textual content message announcing: ‘We’re beginning a rock band that’s going to be about wizards and dragons’,” says the drummer. “I noticed that and I used to be like: ‘Sure!’”
That was once seven years in the past, and the Sydney-based seven-piece Battlesnake have simply launched their 2d album, The Upward push And Loss of life Of The Motorsteeple. At the moment the phrases ‘magnum’ and ‘opus’ are thrown round with abandon, however this album is set as magnum and as opus as one can perhaps get, with titles like A Blessing Of Fireplace And Pace and Pterodactyl Firehawk dovetailing gleefully with the type of willful fail to remember for model norms that implies the band is probably not taken significantly have been they now not so significantly just right.
“We’re all closely influenced by way of the world-building of Lord Of The Rings and Dune,” says guitarist Paul Mason. “We’ve labored onerous to type of expand this ‘emblem’ and to have all of it tie in thematically, and it could be wonderful to assume that we’re on our strategy to developing our personal motion, as a result of we were given some lovely loopy enthusiasts.”
He’s now not fallacious. Reside clips of the band display them absolutely be-cloaked, as though collected for an historic, alien ritual, with frontman Sam Frank wearing a towering pair of horns whilst enthusiasts cower at his ft.
“They’re worshipping the guitar solo,” Mason explains. “It is a just right factor to stay alive. Jeff Beck’s now not right here on this planet anymore. So we are gonna do our bit, you already know?”
Watch On
And the ones costumes?
“Once we began we had this bag stuffed with random costumes,” says Zammit. “I used to put on a one-piece leopard onesie. Billy [O’Key, keytar] had Muay Thai shorts on with flags on his again.”
“Ben [Frank, guitar] and I had leotards,” provides Mason.
Sooner than the gowns arrived, the crowd improved to dressed in white Speedos with the band’s brand embroidered on. By the point you learn this they’ll most likely have moved directly to one thing else.
If that every one sounds a little bit, neatly, foolish, don’t let it put you off, as a result of The Upward push And Loss of life Of The Motorsteeple is a beast of an album, stuffed with wild ambition and filled with nice concepts. The band describe themselves as a mixture of Queen, Judas Priest, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and AC/DC. Which is senseless till you listen the album, after which it very a lot does.
Battlesnake are severe. In 2022 they supported Kiss in Sydney on their Finish Of The Street excursion, which made them extra so.
“We’re a humble band of 7 dudes from Sydney,” says Mason. “Nevertheless it was once nonetheless encouraging to me. We’ve were given pyro now, and a few lovely ballistic displays. It’s only a case of creating it occur, brick by way of brick.”
The Upward push And Loss of life Of The Motorsteeple is out now.
